The present invention relates to body conditioning devices and in particular to a new and useful pneumatic tractor for the treatment of deformities of the spine.
It is known that the spine is not straight, but has a number of curvatures, very pronounced and constant along the sagittal plane and very minor and inconstant along the frontal plane. Of the former, there are four, each corresponding to a portion of the spine, namely the cervical and lumbar curvatures, convex toward the front, and the dorsal and sacral curvatures, convex toward the back.
Deviations of the spine cause various pathological conditions, such as hunchback, lumbar hyperlordosis, scoliosis, etc.
It is known that heretofore such deformities of the spine have been corrected, depending on the gravity, by orthopedic corsets and bodices, plaster apparatus, surgical vertebral fixation such as arthrodesis. Apart from the plaster apparatus and surgical interventions, which are reserved for the most serious cases, the orthopedic corsets and bodices known today use plates or splints of metal and/or rigid plastic, but such guards are not very effective and moreover cause the patient serious physical and psychological discomfort. The present invention sets itself the task to eliminate the inconveniences by proposing a device capable of correcting--in a bloodless manner--the deviations of the spine.